It’s been a while since I’ve posted about any unique forearm exercises. Quite ironic really, seeing as that is one of the weaker parts of my body, in terms of size and mass. However, I did stop focusing on growing them with specific exercises, as I have come to realize that I find better results by focusing on compound exercises.

Bench press

Pull ups

Chin ups

Dips

Nevertheless, here is a routine that will make your forearms feel the burn.

These are all the things that you would love to have huge stacks of when you workout. But as we all know, it never is that easy to tick all of those boxes every time you workout. There will always be that one day where you lose motivation, simply feel uninspired and will eventually be drained from that ‘training insane’ focus that you need to keep your muscles pumping. I’ve covered many techniques on how you can tick all of the above boxes, but one area I haven’t quite touched upon is how to build a great bodybuilding environment.

Building muscles by pushing weights is just the starting point to getting (and staying) ripped!

There are many other ‘life’ factors that set in which will determine if you stick to it, or quit it.

Relationships

Stress

Workouts feel like a chore

And others

Again, going back to the purpose of why this site got started in the first place.

But in terms of your environment, what can you do to help you stay focused?

Stop Looking Cute And Get Ugly!

This kind of reminds me of how some great companies were built. Let’s take Google for example. We all know how big Google are these days, but most people only see the flashy ‘aftermath of success’ side of Google. The IPOs, The acquisitions and the rest. But what many seem to forget is that the real Google wasn’t built by men in suits. It was built by individuals, whose situations at the time were quite un-sexy. Think of geeky hackers, doing work into the late hours with left over pizza boxes everywhere.

Now, I don’t know what it is about that non sexy environment. But that just seems to be when the best work gets created. In fact, I’m lying. I do know!

When you are up against the wall and you have no other option but to perform. You will perform. It’s eat or die!

It never really does get that drastic, regardless of the situation. But when you have that mindset forced upon you,

Pressure will bust pipes or create diamonds!

Now, If you apply the above mentality to your workout, you can easily see how such a mindset can help push you to perform to your MAX in your workouts. It’s a case of telling yourself that you are not happy with your body (Even though you might be to some degree). It’s a case of developing an ‘ Always want to improve’ mindset.

Now, if you already have great looking muscles, you probably do want to have them on display. Not just for vanity reasons, but to see them working as you workout. However, I think that this mindset can make you lose focus.

Why?

The classic scenario

‘ Wow, my muscles look great! I’m happy with what I’ve achieved’

All is good, but then you secretly tell yourself,
‘Right, my hard work is done… time to take it easy’

FAIL!!!

I actually think this is the mindset that destroys any one that finds some success. They forget about the hard graft that it took to get them to where they are and they lose that focused mindset that got them to where they are in the first place.

It’s the

‘Hollywood Syndrome’!

A syndrome which destroys things that are truly great, leaving the true essence of it’s being in the dust.

And this is one of the reasons why you need to stop looking ‘cute’ in your workouts and start looking ‘ugly’

Wear Clothes That Hide Your Physique

This is definitely something you should do, especially if you are a hard gainer. The fact that you can’t see your muscles will drive you to push even harder when you workout. It’s all psychological, but completely beneficial and will help you keep that raw focused mentality.

Find A Gym With Like Minded Bodybuilders

If everyone that you workout with thinks and acts like you do, then it’s only going to rub off on you, which is exactly what you want in this scenario. Not only will they help you when you workout, they will also help to keep you grounded. Not just in the gym, but in your non-bodybuilding activities too (Less alcohol please!)

BTW – I know that most of you drink alcohol ( I do too 🙂 ). Surveys are a great tool.

To conclude

My intentions are to always make working out fun and engaging, so taking you away from the glitz and the glamour is NOT something that I intend to do. But when it comes to building for those results that you desperately want, hard work is just the default, and you can only keep that up by staying focused. Getting ugly and installing a gritty attitude towards your workout is just one effective way to do that.

I’m actually quite shocked at myself that I haven’t written a post about this sooner. After all, repairing muscles is a vital key in the muscle building process in this bodybuilding game.

NOW…

I’m not quite sure what each and every one of your lifestyles are like in regards to going to and from the gym, but it’s probably one of the following two scenarios

Scenario no.1

Eat

2 hours digestion time

Workout

Shower

Home and Relax

Or…

Scenario 2

Eat

2 hours digestion time

Workout

Skip the shower then go home and do whatever

I prefer to do the later (unless I’m at a top notch gym). It’s not that I like to be stinky and nasty after I workout. It’s the fact that some gyms washing facilities are just that… stinky and nasty, even though it may not be visible to the human eye (who remembers gym etiquette?)

Any how, If you are like me, and your work sessions reflect that of the 2nd scenario, you now need to make it compulsary that you do what the title of this post says.

Radox products have been around for years, and it was actually back in 1999 when I got introduced to this (From that same personal trainer/Athlete I spoke of in the Unique Bodyweight exercise Ebook!). Since then, I have been taking hot steamy bubble baths right after a workout, with this very product.

It’s always good to take a hot bath to relax your sore muscles after a workout, and a hot bath by it self will do just that. But like everything else you read on this site, it’s all about taking things one step further, and we do that by adding this liquid to the mix.

NOW…

I’m not a specialist in this area, I just know that what these scientist guys have produced works! When you lay in the bath, it does wonders for your skin (For your face go for King of Shaves products – trust me! It cleared up all the tiny spots I had on my forehead) without leaving your skin feeling too soapy when it’s time to get out. It smells damn good and it contains sea minerals (Which you will definitely sense once you inhale). The thing that is ment to be doing all the magic is clary sage and sea minerals, both of which are known for their soothing properties.

Again, I’m not an expert in this area, but these folks have done well for the consumer. That is

You buy THIS, you get THIS… with no crap talk in between.

I don’t know what EXACTLY is doing all the magic, from

The smells

The minerals

The Clary Sage

Or

The soapy effect on the skin

I just know that if you workout and want to stop feeling like crap, hours after the workout is done, jump in a bath mixed with this stuff, because it works. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Stay tuned for tomorrows post where guide you through the perfect after workout bathing session.

I’m just going to share a biceps routine which I think you can all benefit from today. A routine that I actually performed today. Most of the exercises listed here may be unique to most of you, as they aren’t your everyday bicep exercises. That’s all the better, becasue as you know, change is good for your muscles. Any how, I unleash the pain…

Preacher Hammer Dumbbell Curls

Sets: 3
Reps: 8-12 (Increase the weight after each set)
Rest: 3 minute rest between each set

Spider EZ Bar Curls

Sets: 3
Reps: 8-12 (Increase the weight after each set)
Rest: 3 minutes of rest between each set
Reverse Grip Barbell Curls

Sets: 3
Reps: 8-12 (Increase the weight after each set)
Rest: 3 minutes of rest between each set

Not familiar? Don’t worry, I’ll give you the low down on these is a separate post.

Back in this post, I talked about HIT. Running up hills to be specific, which is great for fat loss. But I’m here to talk about building muscle (Especially for all you hard gainers out there). And today I’m going to share with you the one dominating factor that will allow you to succeed in your weightlifting and muscle mass building efforts.

If you’ve ever read any books by Roger Hamilton, you will know that he speaks strongly about ‘critical moments’. These are moments where you make a deal make or a deal breaker decision which in turn will have a serious impact on your life from that moment on.

The overdrive concept is similar in nature to that. Overdrive is when you reach that critical moment in which you either break down and quit, or where you,

Stop thinking about ‘just giving enough’ to succeed and start thinking about giving it your ALL!

The outcome in both scenarios is controlled by your mindset. As the classic saying goes…

‘Your body is a temple’

However, your body is still a puppet to the puppet master, which is your mindset and how you think. It is a similar mindset that allows those in martial arts to break bricks with their bare hands. Once you enable the overdrive mindset, you will start to succeed at those tough fitness challenges you are facing and begin to succeed at many other things in your life, such as work or raising kids.

I’ve had many personal encounters with the overdrive mindset and 99% of the time that I’ve succeeded with it, I’ve realized that ALL of us humans are actually quite lazy. We tend to want to do ‘just enough’ to obtain what we wish to achieve.

This is the same reason why P90x isn’t for every one, because almost everyone will not have the overdrive mindset, hence the reason why they won’t achieve.

Controlling The Overdrive Mindset

Aka Grow With Baby Steps

Like I mentioned above, I’ve faced quite a few examples of when I used overdrive.

The First

Age 13 – Cross country races.

Always came 3rd or 2nd place.

I stepped out of my lazy comfort zone used overdrive and gave it my all in the last few 100 meters.

The result = First place.

That example will stick with me for life, because I just remember always coming 2nd to those guys. Then one day I just said ‘f**k it… I’m going all out’. And in an instant I beat those guys at the last hurdle. And the reaction from the crowd, the trainer, and the two guys that would usually kick my ass was…

‘WTF’??’

I think I actually shocked myself at the time too.

That’s overdrive!

However, as the years went on and as I began to get a little more life experience under my belt I found that overdrive certainly has its pros. But it certainly has its cons too.

I begin to do press up position sprint starts (Great for increasing your explosive block speed), then a few sessions later I became too fast for my own good. My left shoulder pops out (partial dislocation) and then it slips back in (I had never felt anything like that before). A few moments later, I raise my hands over my head.

BAM!!!

Full dislocation = worst day ever!

My left shoulder was dislocated and out of it’s socket for at least 15 minutes before finding a way to get in back in (read this post to learn how).

That right there is a life lesson to all who are reading this. Introduce some overdrive into your bodybuilding life… yes! But make sure that you take baby steps. Move with the pace of a tortoise but at the speed of a hare.

Meaning…

When you find rapid success or just a technique that works really well for you, test and tweak it for a while before storming off onto the next thing. By doing so you’ll be able to avoid injury unlike I did.

However, I am a bit of a ‘flash kinda dude’ that may get excited from time to time. Hence the reason I dislocated both shoulders, the 2nd time from jet skiing (No more overdrive for me there I’m afraid).

That about wraps it up for my blabber-talk on overdrive, lazy people and mindsets, and I’ll probably touch on this again sometime soon. But for now here is a nice overdrive example.

I think you’ve all had enough of my entertainment antics from the past few posts. I certainly have. And I think it’s time to get back to the business of discovering and executing innovative ways of building muscle. One question one may ask is,

Why Innovative?

The answer:

Because your muscles simply will not grow after a certain point in growth. So you need to get creative in order to start shocking your muscles again.

One way to do this is by performing an exercise twice in one workout. Once in the beginning and one at the end. Like this,

Lat pull downs – 3 sets of 5 reps

Lateral raises (dumbbells) – 3 Sets of 10, 8, 6 reps

Barbell shoulder press – 3 sets of 10 reps

Lat pull downs – 3 sets of 12 reps

Doing this will give your muscles a reason to speak up in confusion. And they’ll probably say something like this,

‘Hey buddy, what the hell’s going on here? We just did this exercise, but something is… different’

That is a statement that I could only wish our muscles would quote on the daily, but unfortunately that is not so (Damn muscle memory). Any how, the real change here is all to do with the different repetition ranges. Performing more reps (possibly with a different weight) will begin to force your muscles to acting differently. Performing both lower reps and higher rep numbers will assist in activating different muscle fibers, hence the ‘shocking’ change to the way your muscles react. This is the exact kind of thing that you need to be doing in your workouts to give mojo back to your muscles.

Change is a never ending and an often rapid thing in my world. I live in this game we call internet marketing, I live in the world we call bodybuilding, and I literaly go mentally sick when my surroundings have been the same for too long. So I’ve become accustomed to rapid changes, which in turn helps you, as I’m constantly trying out new things during workouts.

But this site isn’t about helping me, it’s about helping you. So do yourself a favour and take yourself out of your comfort zone when you workout. Easier said than done, I know. But that is the only way to take your muscles to the next level. This technique is one of them.

We all know that a lack of motivation is what kills your enthusiasm in order to stay fit for the long term, and I know that this is something that many of you suffer from too. What tends to happen is that you’ll suffer from lack of motivation during certain times of the day, or year (Winter). When you do, just make sure you jump online and read this.

THE ONLY WAY TO TRAIN IS TO TRAIN INSANE!!!!!

I’ll say it again,

THE ONLY WAY TO TRAIN IS TO TRAIN INSANE!!!!!

I know you’ve heard me state similar quotes in the past, like in the barbarian workout post. But today I’m cementing this statement too your forehead.

The fact is, the reason you come to websites like stayfitbug.com or other similar websites is because you are probably looking for some kind of fix for your lack of achievements in building that hot muscular body. You’ll probably find some great stuff on websites like this and I’m sure you’ve learnt something new since finding this site. But nothing you read here will make a difference to your goals the way in which YOU can… personally.

The two core reasons you are failing.

1) Bad nutritional diet

2) NOT TRAINING INSANE!!

That’s right… if you are lacking and failing in your workouts, it’s from your own doing.

IT’S YOUR OWN FAULT!!!

You either GO HARD or GO HOME!

If you are not going to go hard at it with your cardio and weight training efforts, you might as well jump on that loser’s bus and go home, because you simply will not develop any meaningful results. ‘You’ll actually save yourself a lot of time, energy, grief and $$$.

Why?

Well, other then the usual stuff you already know about, it’s inevitable that you are going to face challenges on your quest to build muscle, and overcoming these challenges is what will separate the boys from the men and the girls from the ladies.

Plateaus

Injuries

Distraction

And others

However….

IF YOU GO HARD, THEN EXTREME CHALLENGES CANNOT AND WILL NOT AFFECT YOU!

Better yet, they will cease to exist. Not even the might of adversity can beat you if you go hard.

The Solution

How to go hard.

How to stay hard.

???

Get Pissed Off!

I personally find that when my attitude is too relaxed, I don’t tend to perform as well. That’s with anything that I’m trying to achieve in life, especially in my workouts. But not all of us can be or would even want to be pissed off ALL of the time.

Like this guy,

So how can you get pissed off so that you can go hard and perform to your maximum potential?

Hire A ‘Bastard’ Personal Trainer

We’ve all heard about the stories of personal trainers getting slagged off for literally insulting and making an example of their pupils and those same pupils going home crying to mommy because of it. But here’s the part of the story that most people will miss.

The reason that those people go crying home is because they couldn’t stand the heat. They had to get out of the kitchen when it all steamed up.

They didn’t go hard… so they had to go home!

(Well, they at least did the smart thing.)

Their Personal trainers Already Predicted The Outcome

Those personal trainers already knew what the end result would be. Those personal trainers know that the only way to train is to train insane. After a while it’s quite easy to see who the tamed beasts are in a room packed with wild animals. Those crying babies got caught out (for their own good really) and simply cannot, or maybe will not ever agree to the sacred mantra of training insane.

They will never achieve the great results that you will achieve, because you now know that the only way to train is to train insane, and you know that is the only way you are going to get any meaningful results.

You will soon see live examples of this sacred mantra soon, from yours truly ;). You are just going to have to wait and see what surprise I hit you with in the coming months 😉

Well, before I tell you how to build perfect calves as a hard gainer, the first thing you need to do is change your mindset. The answer you just gave is the same answer that 90% of hard gainers would give. All of those methods are good, can and will work. But none of them are better or more natural then this method I’m about to show you.

This is one of the most explosive ways that you can build up your calve muscles and a great way to build great functional strength. You also get to hang around outside, taste the lovely outside air, chat to the ladies (or fellas) and show off too (If that’s your kinda thing).

The secret way to build perfect calves as a hard gainer is to start sprinting in your workouts.

How do I know?

First hand experience, that’s how.

Although I’ve always been an all round good performer in all sports that I’ve set my eyes on (Athletics, football/Soccer, Rugby, Cross Country Running), Sprinting (100m-200m) is the last sport that I performed in and took seriously before hanging up my professional sporting boots for good (10-12 years ago).

And one tip I picked up from the 100m-sprint event was the ability to build explosive strength and muscles in your legs. Also known as fast twitch (Building fast twitch muscle fibers).

That is the precise method of how you can build up strong powerful calves. But let me be more… precise.

If you want to build up strong powerful calves, then start practicing very short sprint bursts. Lets say, 60-meter sprints.

Go out on the track at your nearest recreational ground and perform as many short sprints as you can as fast as you can.

Take a short break in between each sprint. The main goal here is…

To perform less reps (sprints) … FAST!

And this is how you cause an explosion… in your legs!

Explosion in your strength gains

Explosion in your muscles

Explosion in the size of your calves

Doing this may leave you with some really skinny looking lower leg muscles around the shin area, but so what! Your legs already look like chicken sticks. Building any kind of muscle on those chicken bones will be a bonus, regardless of how much or how little the mass. Besides, you can fight the chicken leg syndrome effect by building up the muscles surrounding your ankles. Just follow this article for tips on how to do that.

But none of them are more practical than explosive sprint sets. However, as a hard gainer you will want to balance this exercise technique along side your current weightlifting routine, as you don’t want to jeopardize your weight gains.

An ideal workout for a hard gainer would be to include this sprint technique into a workout routine once or maybe twice a week (depending on your current goals).

For a more in-depth explanation, grab this e-book, which I released this week.

It’s old news that Serena Williams (and her sister) achievements are nothing short of incredible.

‘It’s ok Mrs Williams, we get the hint… you are great!’

But if there is one stand out thing that you will remember about Serena Williams 20 Years from now, it would be their ability to ‘BRING-IT’!

One of the ways they do this (Other than driving fear into into their opponents and scaring the shit out of them) is by serving their opponents with explosive strength. Ever since Serena Williams graced the scene, I always thought that she puts most men to shame in the strength and aggression department. Yet she manages to maintain her femininity. Heck, she could have had a mention in the ‘Sexy Women Bodybuilder‘ article. But she just isn’t a bodybuilder.

Nevertheless. Serena Williams Portrays one of the best examples of explosive strength. The type of explosiveness that you need to incorporate into your workouts.

A lot of people thought I was dissing P90X last week. I wasn’t! I was just highlighting what programs like P90X are missing. But today I am promoting it, because of their focus on muscle confusion aka shock body exercises (explosiveness). And it is the same kind of explosiveness that Serena Williams displays everytime she steps onto the tennis court.

‘But Shaun, she is performing at pro level. How can you possibly compare her to us?’

Yes, she is perfoming at competition level and you may never reach the heights that the Williams sisters do. But it’s all about being inspired. Inspiration is one of the key factors that will help you stick to your workouts.Inspiration gives you that super human boost from your mind to your body. We all have our heroes that we aspire to, but try to steer away from aspiring to non-fictional characters, like I do at times.

(Yes, I’m a big kid and that will probably never change (6))

A reminder to all… THEY ARE MADE UP! They are not real.

However, Serena Williams is 100% REAL, and although some of the things she does may seem super human and out of your reach, she can still be a very good source of inspiration on those days where motivation levels are ZERO.

Before I exit for the day, I’ll leave you with a video for some explosive inspiration.

After all the fun and intensity this week, I quit the talking and began walking again, working on one of my strongest body parts.

Shoulders

This is another routine that I have listed in my training journal and draft and which proves quite affective. Feel free to slip this routine into your own journal.

Note: Don’t forget to work your triceps equally the same. If not, you may just end up with huge shoulders and tiny arms (It’s happened to me before). If you have long limbs like I do then throw in some Isolation exercises in once or twice a week to give your triceps a boost in size.
Standing Palms In Dumbbell Presses